Saturday, July 23, 2011

Lebanon

We were blessed to be able to spend 2 weeks in Lebanon. As Katie is half Lebanese, we had originally planned to try and fit in a dog-leg to Lebanon on our way home later in the year. We knew nothing about Lebanon other than the fact that since becoming an independent nation after WWII, it has had a very turbulent history. With no idea what we were in for, or even whether the trip would in fact eventuate, in late May we decided to contact the Lebanese side of the family back in Australia to get some local insight on how to go about it. The family loved the fact that we wanted to go and check out the country that provided a quarter of our heritage and we received a very enthusiastic and encouraging response.

It turned out that there were actually Australian rellies visiting Lebanon in June/July and we were urged to change our plans and visit during July! On a missionary budget, it was a huge blessing that the family assured us that if we could get there at the same time, we would have a place to stay and we would be well looked after. So with a month to get organized, it wasn’t long before we found ourselves with return tickets to travel to Lebanon from Chad (surely not a commonly seen itinerary)!

Come early July, we flew out of N’Djamena, via Addis Ababa in Ethiopia and arrived at the Rafic Hariri International Airport in Beirut at around 2am. Katie’s dad’s cousin David Essey met us at the airport in his father’s Merc with his brother-in-law Johnny (Lebanese local) acting as chauffeur. Understandably, they looked wrecked, but they still managed to pick us out of the arriving crowd with only a vague verbal description to help. David said, “You were the only couple that wandered past looking like you didn’t know where to go.” Most of those on the plane with us were unmistakably Lebanese.

We drove straight up to Bcharre in the mountains of North Lebanon for an early breakfast with those of the family that had managed to wake up for our arrival. Shivering slightly in the crisp air on the verandah of the Sleiman (the in-laws) house while watching the sun rising over the beautiful Qadisha Valley was a welcome to Lebanon we won’t forget in a hurry. It was cold! We don’t do cold anymore!

Bcharre from a street above the Sleimane's house

Both David and his in-laws were so genuine in welcoming us into the extended family. With a family of 14, and most of them around while we were there, it was every bit of the big, hectic Lebanese family experience we expected. Although a local Arabic dialect is spoken in the house, the children all speak French thanks to the Lebanese schooling system and those that were at, or had been through university also spoke reasonable English (better than our French anyway). Mrs Sleiman understands some English thanks to her kids, but when she found out John understood and spoke some French; she beamed brightly and launched into an enthusiastic stream of friendly conversation. Once John was able to slow her down, it was great that he could communicate a little directly with her. When they hit a block, there was no shortage of willing translators around, English to French, English to Arabic or French to Arabic! And meals with the family – David’s wife Nathalie cooked up a storm with her mum most days and if you didn’t know, authentic Lebanese food is fantastic!

As is also common in some other countries, much of the Sleimane extended family shares a house,
immediate families each living on a different floor.
David's in-laws live on the floor with striped curtain on the balcony. 

We actually stayed in another village in the mountains called Kfarsghab. It was this village that Katie’s grandparents were from and we were able to stay in a magnificent house that David’s parents (Katie’s Dad’s Uncle and Aunt) have slowly been building over the last 10 or so years. Although they live in Australia, they visit most years and the house has been slowly built in this time. The top floor is now almost finished and we had the whole place to ourselves! To be able to stay in such a beautiful house was fantastic, but we agree that the house itself was topped by the view…waking up to such a wonderful view every morning was an amazing change of scenery for us from Chad!








L: Kfarsghab looking across the valley from Ehden, R: The Essey's house and our home for our 2 weeks in Lebanon.
Looking back across at Ehden from the balcony
Kfarsghab at night.
Looking out from the balcony to the Mediterranean in the distance.
One afternoon as we strolled around Kfarsghab, we stumbled across a little Catholic chapel. As we wandered into the courtyard, we were approached by a local guy and asked who we were and where we were from (questions we became very familiar with during our stay – in a small village not frequented by tourists, there aren’t many strangers and understandably everyone is curious). Funnily enough, most English speakers in the area spoke with a distinctly Australian accent. As you walked past another Lebanese local in the street, your polite wave and passing “bonjour” would usually be met with a string of local Arabic greetings/questions (?) to which you smile and understandingly nod “ahah,” then mumble something just audible that might sound slightly Arabic and keep on walking J Often enough, however, you’d be thrown off your stride by a grinning Australian “howya goin? Youse Aussies or what? Where’reya from? Sydney?” So, it wasn’t a surprise for this guy in the little cobbled chapel courtyard to find out where we were from. The next question is usually “where are you staying/who are you staying with?” and when we explained where we were staying and who we were related to (Chidor – Katie’s grandpa), we were stunned when the guy pointed just over the wall of the courtyard, to the tiny stone house in the steeply sloped narrow alley directly below saying “that’s where he was born and raised you know.” As David hadn’t been sure exactly where Chidor’s family’s house was (it no longer belongs to the family) we were stoked to stumble onto it in a way so appropriate for a tiny mountainside Lebanese village.

The house where Chidor (Katie's grandfather) was raised before his family came to Australia (the chapel is the building just
above it on the right).

Most days, David and his father in-law, or one of the various brothers in-law would pick us up and drive us around to the many interesting sites in and around the mountains of North Lebanon. On a couple of occasions we travelled further to places like Byblos in Jöuni, Baalbeck in the Bekaa Valley and Jeita Grotto which is on the shortlist for the New 7 Wonders of the Natural World. We are so thankful to have had local family show us around and we saw so many remarkable places that we would never have had access to if left to our own devices!

We saw the Monastery of Saint Anthony of Qozhaya Monastery the day we arrived in Lebanon.
The church of the monastery was originally a cave. In more recent times a beautiful stone wall façade has been added.
The printing press inside the monastery's museum is the first in the Middle East. It has been dated back to 1585, with the
oldest accessible printed text a copy of the Book of Psalms printed in 1610.
Ascetic life was widespread in the Qozhaya Valley. Hermits lived in cells chiseled into the rocks and several have been
 preserved within the monastery complex. 
Coming from Chad, we were stoked to get the chance to muck around in the remnant snow on the mountain pass 15mins
 drive from the Sleimane house in Bcharre. As it is now summer in Lebanon, the snow was far from fresh powder, but as
 neither of us have ever seen snow before we weren't worried!
Johnny and Johnny
L-R: David, Mansour (David's father in-law) and us.
The drive back down to Bcharre.
The famous Cedars of Lebanon are also very close to Bcharre. To walk amongst such ancient trees from bible times
was amazing, especially considering they now only grow in the one location.
Saint George's is a tiny stone chapel perched near the edge of the sheer cliffs just below Bcharre. The chapel is within
 easy walking distance of the Sleimane house.
The view from the cliff's edge beyond Saint George's.
On the same day we went and checked out Qadisha Grotto, a cave from which constantly flows the water that supplies all of the
 villages in the Bcharre area. The grotto is only accessible by foot.
At the gates of the hydro electricity plant.
We took a day trip to see the ruins of the ancient Port city of Byblos (now known as Jbeil). Byblos is said to have been
 settled around 6230BC. Archeological remains date back to the 3rd millennium BC, the period when the Phoenician
 civilisation began to develop.
There were so many interesting things to see and we could easily have spent more time taking it all in.
Byblos castle, built by the crusaders in the 12th century is the dominant structure of the archeological site near the port.
 Same of the stones they used to build the castle are massive!
We finished at Byblos and went to Jouni where we took a cable car to Harissa in order to take in the view from the foot
 of Our Lady of Lebanon.
The bronze statue (painted white) was actually
 constructed a decade or two before Christ the
 Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro.
Another day saw us visiting the Monastery of Saint Elisha at the foot of the cliffs directly below Bcharre. 
From the monastery we took a long walk along a track near the bottom of the valley. The weather was beautiful and the
 scenery was breathtaking. Looking around the cliff faces, you couldn't help but imagine a time when there were hermits
 living in just about every cave-like hole you spotted.
We stopped for a drink at a natural well and got talking to an old local farmer - there are terraces along the valley floor
 wherever it is possible to grow something.
Our most anticipated day trip would have been out to the ancient Roman ruins at Baalbeck. This shot faces East into the
 Bekaa valley from the Eastern side of the mountain pass above Bcharre (on the way to Baalbeck). 
The ancient ruins at Baalbeck are Lebanon's greatest Roman treasure. Construction of the temples began around 25BC and
 was nearing completion during the final years of Nero's reign (37-68AD). The temple complex is made up of the Jupiter Temple
 and the Bacchus Temple with The Temple of Venus a short distance away.
The great Temple of Jupiter was the largest religious building in the Roman Empire. The temple was originally surrounded
 by 54 columns 20m high and 2.2m in diameter. (L) We are standing at the base of one of the remaining columns!
The smaller Bacchus Temple was built about a century after the Temple of Jupiter and still stands in remarkably intact today.
On the way home, we stopped at the top of the mountain pass to buy nuts from these guys selling an amazing variety from
 the back of their station wagon!
Our final grand expedition was to Jeita Grotto (the photos aren't ours, you aren't allowed to take a camera inside). These caves
were truly incredible. Consisting of an upper and lower 'gallery,' we were blown away by the sheer size of the caves, let alone
 the intricacy of the natural formations inside. It is no surprise that Jeita Grotto is vying for a place in the new 7 Natural Wonders
 of the World.
After walking through the upper gallery, it was amazing to be able to tour the lower gallery (above) in flat bottomed electric boats!

This trip isn’t something we’ll forget and it wouldn’t have been possible without the kindness and hospitality of the Esseys and the Sleimanes. We know that they also shared our hope that our recollections and photos will go a long way to convincing our Lebanese family back home (most of who haven’t ever been to Lebanon) that it is definitely worth a visit! We’ll give it a good shot and maybe we’ll get back again one day.

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